The invention relates generally to the field of golf, and in particular to the protection of golf clubs which are held within a golf bag. More specifically, the invention provides a removable attachment which may be affixed to a golf bag to surround the club heads and then inflated to compress the club heads together.
Golf is currently one of the most popular sports in the United States and throughout the world. In the game of golf, the golfer utilizes a set of golf clubs which can include various irons, a putter, drivers, and the like. The golf clubs are often constructed from different materials, such as metals, woods, composites, and the like, and may change from time to time as technology advances.
Typically, a set of golf clubs will be held within a golf bag until ready for use. When stored within the golf bag, the shafts of the clubs are inserted into the golf bag so that the club heads are positioned above the top end of the golf bag. In this way, the club heads are visible and may easily be located and removed by grasping the club head and pulling the club from the golf bag.
To maximize the performance of the golf clubs, it is desirable to keep them in good working order. However, this can be difficult because of the manner in which the golf clubs are stored in the golf bag. For instance, most golfers transport their golf clubs while held within a conventional golf bag. Since the clubs are loosely held within the golf bag, they are free to jostle about and can damage each other, especially if some of the club heads are constructed from wood or special alloys. Furthermore, the club heads are often directly exposed to external environment and can become damaged by external objects as the bag is transported to various locations. The potential for inflicting damage to the golf clubs is heightened when transporting the golf clubs in an airplane, an automobile, or the like, where the club heads can easily bang against other luggage or the vehicle itself.
In view of such problems, a variety of schemes have been proposed to protect golf clubs when stored within a golf bag. For example, some have proposed placing a cloth "sock" individually over some or all of the club heads. However, this scheme provides only minimal protection for the club heads. As another example, some have proposed placing the entire golf bag and clubs within a rigid, hard shell or case. However, such cases are heavy, bulky, expensive and inconvenient to carry and store.
Hence, it would be desirable to provide devices and methods for their use which would overcome or greatly reduce these and other problems associated with the storing of golf clubs within a golf bag. Such devices should be cost effective, easy to attach to a golf bag, and easy to operate. It would be further desirable if such a device were light weight so that the overall weight of the golf bag would not be greatly increased, and so that the device would be easy and convenient to store.